To configure an item of equipment, it is for example possible to use an interactive interface protocol such as the known TELNET protocol. This protocol is standardized but the data accessible are not. This poses a problem, in particular in respect of a considerable amount of network equipment as is often the case.
Among other things, management comprises the prediction and detection of faults. In the known state of the art, mention may be made by way of example of document WO 02/46928 which discloses a system which processes information obtained from sensors associated with variables catalogued in an administration information base named MIB (Management Information Base). To allow its interpretation and large-scale processing in relation to numerous items of equipment, the definitions of the variables are specified by means of a standardized language named SMI (Structure of Management Information). A protocol named SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol), likewise standardized, makes it possible to access the variables by exchanging queries/responses between equipment of the network.
As is the case for example in document WO 02/17094, the variables may relate to devices which are rather sensors of temperature, alarm states or IP type network addresses than more complex equipment. For such devices, one then speaks of objects catalogued in one or more various MIBs. This document discloses means for interfacing the devices under SNMP.
The technique based on the SNMP/SMI/MIB trio has reached a certain degree of maturity. The specifications of the MIBs themselves and also those of the objects catalogued therein, are specified both in terms of semantics and size. The formulation of the MIBs is fine-tuned, possibly by means of automated handlers such as those proposed for example in document U.S. Pat. No. 6,009,431. The absolute identification of the objects by the standards (X208 and X209), the absolute identification of the instances of objects by the instance index, imply that the MIBs provide a normative benchmark prized by operators. The SNMP protocol is widely used for numerous types of equipment and services such as attested to by documents WO 01/44924, EP 115 8720 or else WO 02/47322.
However, the SNMP protocol is not satisfactory for transporting a sizeable volume of data since it adds a considerable overhead in terms of additional information. The queries/responses mode (polling) makes it difficult to optimize the internal management of the data in the network equipment. The growth in the communication throughput of equipment is augmenting the risk of mantissa overshoot in computers with the cascade effect of consequently increasing the frequency of queries/responses that is required in order to avoid this overshoot of mantissas. The exchanging of the identifiers of instances between machines, considerably increases the bandwidth required, to a first approximation by a factor of three, to the detriment of the useful bandwidth for the data of the users. Although approximately 85% of the objects of the MIBs are fields of tables, although approximately 99.9% of the instances are instances of these objects, that is to say of fields of tables, the SNMP protocol does not optimize the consultation of the tables. While the fields of a table row have the same index, the SNMP protocol repeats the index for each field, thus adding an extra throughput of around one hundred bytes per table row consulted.